Renungan Nabawi

Last two days I went for a blood-bank mobile service. Quite surprisingly for the department to send an M.O. for the service as usually H.O.s are sent. This is my 3rd time going to a such programme.

The campaign was held at Sekolah Menengah Teknik Puteri, Temerloh. I went there to help my hospital's blood-bank team. The campaign was organized by a group of Form 5 students of the school as a part of their social subject.

Blood donation is an important part of blood bank service. Without such campaigns, our blood supply won't be sufficient for the need of the hospital. There are two types of services provided by a blood bank. 1) Donor will go to the blood bank in the hospital and donate their blood. 2) Blood bank team go to a blood donation campaign as I went on last Wednesday.

Before you can be a donor, there are several tests will be carried out on you. These tests are conducted to ascertain that you are eligible to be a donor. On the day of donation, you will be given a questionnaire comprising a set of questions asking for your health history. Then, you will be interviewed by a doctor regarding HIV status and your sexual history. All of the questions are kept secret. Don't worry!

I could not remember all of requirements needed for you to be a qualified donor. Some of them are:

1) You have at least 5 hours sound sleep on the night before donating

2) You have no fever, flu-like ilnesses on the day of donation

3) You have not taking any antibiotics within 1 week before donation

4) You are not taking Aspirin

5) You have not gone for any dental procedure within 24 hours of donation

6) You have not gone for any surgical procedure within 6 months before donation

7) You are not on early days of menstruation and must be at least day 5 of menses (this is for female only.. :-D)

8) Your body weight is more than 45kg

9) Your hemoglobin level is at least 12.5 g/dL

10) Your blood pressure should be within normal limit (this will be determined by the attending doctor)

11) If you are a regular blood donor, your last donation must be at least 3 months ago

That's all I can remember. Uhuk..

Well, I was quite surprised to see some of the students where by I rejected their qualification to donate blood on that day, keep on persuading me to allow them to donate. It reminded me of how motivated they were to donate blood even though they know we will be using a big needle.. Ahaks.. Shame on you who are adults but still afraid of donating blood.. (including me!)

2 of the students developed post-donation giddiness. This is sometimes happened if you did not mentally and physically prepared to donate. Some of those who are scared of donating blood, please keep yourself calm during donation. As your mental will make you look so bad as if you lost 3 litres of blood while the truth is that maximum we draw out only 450ml! Please do have some light meal beforehand. InsyaAllah, you will be okay..

So, the next time you see a blood donation campaign, do visit it and donate your blood..